i'm matt ackland in dupont circles where the winds are really picking up. >> in mans mannasas the snow is accumulating quickly. >> the winds are whipping as the snow continues to pile up in gaithersburg. >> we're in maryland here at emergency operations center tracking the storm. >> and we thank you for joining

us tonight at 10:00. i'm tony perkins. >> and i'm shawn yancy. it has been a busy day all around the dmv. the blizzard of 2016 is here. let's take a live look right here at dupont circle in the heart of the district of columbia. all of this snow is making a huge impact on the roads. >> want to let you know right now that clara barton parkway from glen echo to the dc line is actually closed right now. we have live team coverage for you tonight in dc, maryland and virginia. we will start, though, with sue palka and caitlin roth in the weather center with the latest on this storm. sue and caitlin? >> thank you very much. i've got to tell you things are going to start going downhill very rapidly. we are starting to see the on set of blizzard conditions in lower southern maryland, east central virginia it's moving north and in the next few hours things are going to go downhill. >> we've had several inches accumulate throughout this evening but we haven't begun

with the actual blizzard conditions and that's what we fear as we go through the overnight hours and early tomorrow morning. >> you see these odd looking colors. the dark purples are the colors of our more intense snow band. i'm going take you over to the other one that's going to look a little odd. that is a piece of software that allows us to see inside the snow. i want to show you we are getting some rates down to the south of 3 inches of snow per hour. let's get farther into the bay, 2 inches per hour. all of this is moving to the north and we are going to see these snowfall rates really picking up. so far it's been about .5 to 1 inch per hour and we've gotten pretty decent snowfall rates around the region. here are some of the totals we've been seeing tonight. >> so far 3.8 inches at reagan national, that's 4.8 inches at dulles. germantown 5 inches. we're seeing the highest amounts towards our south, 7.5 in prince

william county. >> so continuing on with this snow theme, where are we going to end up with this monster blizzard? let me take you forward and show you what our model is suggesting and we're basing this on the world-renowned euro model. we could have 18.3 inches in dc, 23.7 at winchester. dulles could be up to 21.7, frederick 16.9, leonardtown 12.1 and you see where it drops off at salisbury at 5.4. let's take this forward to 1:00. 21 inches to 30 inches possible out towards our west. sue, it's remarkable because we have 4, 5, 6 inches in northwest dc right now. you add a foot on to that by tomorrow morning. so those really heavy snow bands that you showed on radar towards our south, once they come over us, you won't believe how heavy

they are snowing. >> you won't believe how dangerous it will be on the road. by 6:00 tomorrow night, now we're looking at 35.1 inches in winchester, 26.3 in mannasas. 28.8 in culpeper and we're pushing 22 inches here in dc. wait, it's not over. it looks like it will be winding down tomorrow evening and when it's all said and done. >> 20 to 30 inches really widespread. we could see over 30 inches in some spots. if we do, that's going to be in the mountains, probably winchester over 35 inches there. >> so that's your snow. but we're also very concerned about wind. these are the headlines. obviously this continues to be a high impact situation for this region. what you've seen so far is only the beginning stages. prime time is coming. it will be between 1:00 in the morning and 1:00 if the afternoon with intense snow and strong winds. this is where we get these white-out conditions and visibility conditions are just so incredibly poor with winds

finally starting to ease late on saturday. >> and wind gusts right now they're starting to pick up. it's been kind of breezy today but nothing too terrible. 28 mile an hour wind gusts in washington, 35 in quantico and we just expect it to increase from here. >> so we take this to 10:00 tonight and it's really on point with those wind gusts. look what happens as we go forward to say 2:00 in the morning. it's now gusting to 38 in dc, 7:00 a.m. ocean city has got a wind gust of 73 according to this prediction, which is what it is. but that's really darn close to category 1 hurricane strength. it will cause problems even if the snow doesn't. we're still gusting over 40 miles per hour here in the city this afternoon and all of this is blowing and drifting and starting to load down the trees and the power lines and that's when we start looking at potential problems going toward. it's finally settling down by sunday morning. it will still be quite breezy, the accumulating snow ends tomorrow night and we are

grateful to all of you who are sending your pictures and we know things are going downhill fast we will keep you posted. >> for now we'll send it back up to tony and shawn. >> one of the things sue and caitlin mentioned was those heavier bands coming through. it looks like one of them will be approaching prince george's county shortly. ronica cleary is monitoring the action. >> how are they managing the situation tonight? >> reporter: it's pretty interesting to see what they're doing. i'm here inside the emergency operations center in prince george's county. you can see behind me they actually have monitors here. they are looking at the entire county as the storm progresses. and with me i have ronny gill, the emergency management director here in prince george's county. tell us about what you can see and monitor through the system that you have. >> some of the things we're monitoring is the traffic, we're seeing how much snow we're getting accumulating across the

region. we also check all the channels to see what's going on around just get an overview of the snow and accounting. >> now one thing that you told me that is a little concerning and i think it's important for people to know, the type of snow that we're seeing gives you some concern for tomorrow and for resz dents. so tell me about what that and what we should watch for. >> the two things that give concern, it's supposed to be wet, heavy snow and we're supposed to have heavy winds. with those two there's tremendous danger of downed wires, powerlines which is going to create power outages. >> i don't know if there's anything that we can do, when you're talking about power lines. i'm parked at a hotel and i shoveled some of the snow around my car and took some of it off of it because i know by sunday it's going to be brutal but when you're talking about power lines, is there anything that residents can do or is it just a waiting game? >> it's somewhat a waiting game. one thing we don't encourage our residents do go near power lines. if they see downed power lines,

notify their utility companies. definitely stay away from them. if you report trees down, we'll take those goals here, we'll take them throughout the county. >> people can actually call you here at the emergency operations center to report issues like that? what's the best method for people? >> the best method is to call 311. and if it's information that we need to have here 311 will direct the call here. >> reporter: you said something about the fact that not all of the screens have information on them, but this storm you expect it to be pretty serious for prince george's county. >> that's correct. we just saw a forecast of p to 25, 26 inches of snow. that's going to put a tremendous impact on our services, our public safety personnel and the residents of the county. >> reporter: thank you so much, ronny. and it's certainly not anything new. we've been reporting on it now for days but you heard it here. they are monitoring the storm, monitoring it street by street behind me at the emergency

operations center doing their best to keep it safe. >> ronica cleary from the operations center. we want to go to the roads in virginia and talk about the situation. we understand we have a spokesman on the line from vdot. >> yes, good evening. >> michele, thank you for joining us. i'm shawn, this is tony. give us an idea of what the situation is like out there on the roads right now. >> sure. right now we have more than 4,300 trucks fully deployed throughout the region and we are focused on plowing and just keeping up with the snowfall that's coming down. we do expect the snow to get heavier and the winds to pick up late tonight. so we want to try to keep up with the plowing as the snow continues to fall. so that's kind of where we are right now. >> as we've gotten into these later hours, you know, we've got cameras all over the place that we're showing. and it looks like people have heeded the warnings and that you

don't have many people on the roads right now. is that right? >> that's right. there are very few vehicles out on the roadway. and 're very pleased with that. people are staying off the roads and staying safe and we want them to continue to do that throughout tomorrow when the heavier snow comes. >> hey, michele, let me ask you. how many crews do you have out right now? i don't know if you specifically have the breakdown for northern virginia? how many crews are out there, how many will you keep on for the next 24 hours? >> we have more than 4,300 trucks, pieces of equipment out there throughout the northern virginia area. and we are fully deployed until we get through kind of the peak of the storm. >> one of the hard things about a storm like this, if we're talking about 20 to 30 inches of snow i imagine is you're going go through some areas, plow, and a couple of hours later you'll have to go back and do it all over again. is that right? >> that's right.

that's why we have so much equipment out there. we have to keep up with the snowfall. we can't just let it all fall and plow at the very end. our goal is to stay focused and continue to keep up with it as it falls. we will be doing repeated passes through areas. >> i know right now the focus is the main roads but i'm sure there are people at home right now that are wondering when are you guys going to get to my neighborhood. when are the plows going to get to my street. what advice do you have for them? >> well in northern virginia we focus on the interstates, but we also focus on the neighborhoods at the same time. so we have crews that are deployed in all areas. and you know we're trying to keep up with all of the areas as best we can. we just encourage people to stay off the road and to stay patient. folks can check the status of where the trucks are specifically by accessing our vdotplows.org site. >> people can go there right now.

can people actually report like say they're in an area that hasn't been plowed, can they also report it on that site? >> they would need to call our 1-800 customer line. >> is that, what is the number for that? >> the number is 800-367-road. >> that certainly makes it easy for people. >> and michele, one last question. the virginia state police have been keeping us abreast of the accident situation and that type of thing. are you aware of how that's gone during the last couple of hours in northern virginia? >> yes. we are staying closely coordinated with virginia state police as well as local law enforcement and as i said there have been very few incidents out on the roads this evening. so we're very pleased with how things look out there and we just want to keep it that way and continue to let the plows get out on the roadway and do the job of removing the snow as it comes down. >> michele holland is a spokesperson with the virginia

department of transportation. thank you for taking the time to talk to us. >> thank you. >> from virginia now we're going to head into the district. matt ackland has been in dupont circle all evening long. the last time we checked in you had a rowdy bunch of people around you. have things calmed down at all? >> they're smart. they went inside. it's much more quiet, but i will tell you it's gotten brutal out here. not only is the snow coming down, but we're really getting gusts of winds and i should tell you a little bit of breaking news. the mayor's spokesperson just texted me and told me that there is a power line down or at least a report of one near 295 and they're currently investigating to see if residents and businesses in that area have lost power. we do know that dc's emergency management has tweeted out that there is some power outages and they're reminding folks -- boy, the wind is picking up --

reminding folks that warming centers across the district are open. there's one in each ward. we put it on twitter. i put all of the different locations. also just to be on the safe side, the city has 30 additional sites that they can open in the event that the power outage is really an issue. right now it's just spord i can. they are investigating that issue near 295 at this point. just to give you a look pinned me, i should step out of the way, this is dupont circle. not much people out here tonight. i will say for some reason a lot of cabs continue to drive around the circle here. i don't know if they're picking up people. i know that they can charge a little bit more, not a lot, but i should say more than probably should be on the roadment and ronny, if you take a look to your left you'll see this truck is definitely already starting to plow. we've seen the same truck take care of dupont circle several times within the last 15 or 20

minutes with this snow. it is coming down once again, warming centers. if you've lost power and you live in the district, you should know there are warming centers throughout the district. and if you need to get to a warm space, just go online and check that. also, another website that you want to look at is snow.dc.gov. it has all the information that you might need if you live here in the district of columbia. shawn, tony back to you. >> we talked a little about where people can go if their power goes out. clearly we can see the conditions around you. describe how they've changed the last two hours. >> oh. the snow is blowing into my face. the wind is picking up. we're kind of in an area where the wind does blow through here in dupont circle. but shawn, it's hard to see. it's gotten awfully cold. some people are enjoying it behind me. but most people are inside. most cars off the road for now.

we do see several snow plows but it's the wind that's really picking up tonight and with that in the snow in the face, it does sting a bit. >> matt get inside, get warm and we appreciate the update. >> we are getting a sense of what matt will look like when he grays. staying in the district, unfortunately some stuff situations out there. some police in dc are asking for the public's help in locating a missing person. please take a look at your screen right now. this is that man, 69-year-old carl nick -- nichols. he was last seen last night. he was last seen wearing a gray hadded sweatshirt, obviously not what you need to be wearing in this type of weather. if you have any information or if you have seen him, you are asked to call dc police. as you've seen, road conditions are continuing to deteriorate as the nightwears

on. >> let's check in now with tisha lewis she's live in mannasas out there. what are roads like where you are? >> reporter: what i can tell is you that the impact is getting worse from this snowfall as the winds continue to pick up. just to echo a lot of what we heard are really making the situation much worse out here. i did just speak with the virginia department of transportation and they did tell us a lot of valid and vital information. now, here's what their plan is looking ahead. they say that their folks will be on 12-hour shifts, probably for the next several days, as long as it's needed. and here's why it's needed. i just want to give you an idea of what we're up against. so this is just an example of a car that has been parked here. this is an example of the drift that we're looking at and what it can really do to the snowfall. now again, vdot is saying that their folks will be on 12-hour shifts. they also say they'll be working into the overnight hours into

tomorrow and the day after, they're urging everyone to stay home. right now their focus is going to be on the most heavily traveled roadways, the main roads, the secondary roads, and also the major subdivisions. they also let us know that if at some point this snowfall and this weather becomes a safety issue, which it has for the general population, but if it becomes a safety issue for their truck drivers, they will immediately pull them off the roadways and reassess. we did speak with someone who's a pro in these types of weather conditions and here's what he had to say. what's it like out there on the roadways? >> the roads is pretty bad out there. pretty bad out there. if you ain't got a 4 wheel drive, you ain't coming out. >> reporter: we've watched you drive the trucks and shovel the area. what's the biggest challenge?

>> as soons you go down and come back up it's full again. and plowing too. same way. plow one side and 20 minutes later it's filled up again. >> reporter: with your experience, when do you think people are going to be able to hit the roads again? >> they calling for sunday morning so probably sunday evening, maybe monday morning. depending on the temperature i guess, how cold it get sunday night. >> reporter: when's the last time you saw something like this? >> i'm 38 years old and i ain't never heard them call for over 24 inches of snow all my life. >> reporter: and back out here live, you can see the snow is still coming down and again, vdot says it's like a broken record but they want to remind everyone to make sure that you stay inside and that you're not out if you don't have to be out. also what was interesting was that they also told me this is going to be an expensive weather event for vdot.

they say that at the peak of the storm, get this, it's costing them $1 million to remove the snow. when you add up the cost of staffing, equipment, material, $1 million an hour to remove the snow at the peak of the storm. this is the scene here at the mannasas shopping center in mannasas. if you're home, stay home. again, vdot has all this information on their website and we'll be sure to put it on our website as well. tisha lewis, fox 5 local news. >> now we want to check on road conditions elsewhere in northern virginia. tom fitzgerald is live in alexandria. >> hey, tom. so we know you're live on king street. the last time we checked in with you, you were outside at a wedding reception. what are you doing now? >> reporter: we've moved down to old town, alexandria. one of the things about this city is that it is so walkable and a lot of people are still taking advantage of that

ability. there are several restaurants still open tonight and people are availing themselves to that. but i want to show you the scene up here up on king street. we did get down here i would say probably about 9:00 to the spot where we are right now. we didn't really see anybody on the roads until we got to about where city hall is, and that's when we started seeing a few pedestrians, people out. you see a few cars running around tonight and we even got one of the trucks that are coming down right now, one of the snow plows, you can see. we spoke to craig pfeifer earlier this evening, he's the chief public affairs spokesperson for the city of alexandria. craig tells us they've got about 60 trucks on the road tonight. they are going around trying to get all these streets. they've got about 15 square miles in the city of alexandria. you may or may not know that in the state of virginia, cities

are responsible for plowing their own streets. now, state roads are plowed by vdot. but here in alexandria, they have to do all of this themselves. so they've got these trucks outside and they are working on getting all of these streets plowed as much as possible. pro actively. >> all right. we lost -- >> reporter: we did not see any of this. >> sounds like we lost tom's shot there. we will try to get back to him. the other thing about old town, alexandria. some of the concern about late tonight and particularly tomorrow as those winds whip up, we could see some waters pushed on shore there. we'll talk to sue and caitlin about that a little bit later on and see what the concerns there might be. now amid all of the bad news that the storm is bringing, some of us are catching a break for once. >> jim lokay is here to explain exactly what all this means. >> i like to be the bearer of some good news out there. so we mentioned about having no metro. here you look over at the friendship heights station, the

metro rail stops running in about 40 minutes. but if you have no car and no garage, waive been hearing about power outages but we do have unexpected good news on all three fronts. first, dc taxis, they're running with a $15 surcharge. lyft will not add any additional pricing. uber says it's capping higher rates. it still could cost you more than twice the normal fare. in terms of parking. if you have to get your car up the street and you haven't done so yet, you're lucky. metro is allowing for parking in garages. if the way you get online is affected, comcast and cox saying public wi-fi are temporarily open to everyone for the next week. you don't to be a subscriber.

this is to engender some good will. once everything ends, comcast and cox are going to try to get some people, they were nice to us during the blizzard. hey, look what we did for you. >> thank you, jim. all right. we're going to take a break. want to let you know that we're going to be with you throughout your late night. we'll be on, i think until 1:00 a.m. >> 1:00 a.m. and we should let you know we will be back on again 5:00 a.m. beginning tomorrow morning, allison, tucker and steve will all be here. certainly things will be changing overnight so keep it right here on fox 5. we will be right back.

>> you just saw matt ackland a little while ago referring to that, winds have picked up, more snow is coming down hard and heavy. and please do not go out if you don't have to at all. let's take a look at the maps and we'll show you what's going on because we have plenty to share with you as the radar is showing. if you take a look at the very

dark purple to the bottom here, that's where you're seeing the heavier bands of snowfall and that's where we're looking at possibly getting up to 3 feet of accumulation through here. so it continues to build up and build up and build up. so we are watching it very closely. but here's a look at the big picture as this system continues to move its way up the northeast and it is very powerful. it's expected to be near norfolk by the time we get into tomorrow morning. but still the wide swath of precipitation with it and you can see where that rain-snow line is and that continues to push through into some of the colder air as it spins so that is turning more into snow as well as it moves up. so we're continuing to watch it closely. temperatures are another big factors here. look at these temperatures we're only into the 20s but the winds are playing a big role. with the falling temperatures, it's getting colder out there and things could be slick. bridges and overpasses definitely. mid atlantic here's a look at the wind gusts.

you can see 37 mile per hour winds near hatteras and that's actually where we just show showed you the main portion of the system is. look at the wind gusts across the entire area here. they are gusting from 16 to 35 miles per hour. that is very significant because we're talking these blizzard-like conditions but it's also creating wind chills. so with our reporters and everybody who's outside, you hear them talking about just how cold it is, it feels even colder with the wind. this is what it feels like. our current air temperatures are in the 20s, but it feels like it's only 8 degrees in dc, 7 at winchester, only 7 at dulles, the same at baltimore and 9 degrees at gaithersburg. so that's a pretty good example of what everybody is dealing with out there. and just you know the winds an the temperature and the wind chills. those are all things that are also very, very dangerous, besides the conditions that are currently on the road. tony? >> all right gwen. thank you very much. >> we want to check in right now

with the folks at pepco. so far we aren't seeing many reports on power outages. >> joining us right now is vincent morris. let me ask you about reports of a power line being down near 295 in dc. what are you hearing about this? what do we know so far? >> i don't know specifically what the status on that is. we tell everyone as soon as you see a downed powerline to stay far away from it and just call it in and our crews will get out there. i can't speak to that one because i haven't gotten an update from our staff on that. it may be that we've already gotten a crew that's ready to respond. in general, it's hard for us to respond when the weather is like this. it's basically a white-out. and that's why we're encouraging everyone, governments have been saying to stay off the roads, so the crews can do their work and plow and clear the way